Manisha Saxena and Shalini Kumar.

To mark International Women’s Day (8 March), APTRA is highlighting the strong line-up of women speakers, panellists, management and performers taking part in the upcoming APTRA India Conference in New Delhi.

The event, which is taking place from 20-21 March at Pullman Hotel, Aerocity, is kick-starting with a keynote address from Manisha Saxena, Director General Tourism, Government of India.

Other women speakers include Divya Aggarwal, Associate Partner, McKinsey & Co India; Surabhi Batra, Area Manager, India, L’Oréal; Clarisse Daniels, Regional Director, APAC India & Americas; and Rajshree Dugar, Chief Strategy Officer, Asia Pacific, Heinemann.

This is in addition to Neha Jabbar, Head of Customer Marketing, Gulf & India Business Unit, Pernod Ricard; Kaveri Khullar, SVP Marketing Asia Pacific, Mastercard; Shalini Kumar, Rditor, Spiritz Magazine; and Leila Stansfield, Managing Director, Bacardi Global Travel Retail & Global Belonging Lead, Bacardi.

Sandra Tassilly, Commercial Director, APAC, MENA & India, Diageo Travel Retail and Nicola Wells, Head of Category Development, Nestle International Travel Retail are also taking to the stage.

The APTRA India Conference is being managed by Anne Kavanagh, Executive Director APTRA assisted by Sharolyn Paul, APTRA’s Admin Officer.

Clockwise from top left: Clarisse Daniels, Rajshree Duggar, Kaveri Khullar, Neha Jabbar, Leila Stansfield, Divya Aggarwal, Sandra Tassilly, Surabhi Batra, and Nicola Wells.

Furthermore, on the evening of 20 March, during the Gala Dinner, in partnership with Bacardi, renowned performing artist Manjari Chaturvedi will present a Kathak dance set, especially choreographed for the conference.

“Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are increasingly important strategic imperatives for businesses in travel retail to ensure a balanced perspective in leadership teams and for our industry to be representative of the consumers we serve,” said Sunil Tuli President of APTRA & Group Chief Executive, King Power Group (Hong Kong).

“I am personally very proud that our conference programme reflects this balance, not just in terms of the gender ratio amongst speakers, but also in ensuring diversity across a wide range of nationalities, creating space on the industry stage for new voices that represent the changing dynamics of travel retail.”

Anne Kavanagh and Sharolyn Paul.

To coincide with the conference, APTRA is co-hosting a networking session for WiTR+ on 20 March from 6pm at the Pullman Hotel, with cocktails provided by Bacardi.

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